Winston turns 3!

As a child two things I could guarantee on my birthday were: a birthday tea after school and opening presents on my Mum and Dad’s bed first thing with all my siblings. These are two traditions we have kept in our own little family, but we have also added a new one: birthday breakfast. We asked Winston the day before what he would like for his and he said pancakes. So pancakes it was – with Nutella, maple syrup, squirty cream and green juice. I set it up the night before so we would be all ready to go. He woke up around 7am and we watched him open his presents.Winston really doesn’t have any friends other than his cousins, and that suits me well because (selfishly) I’m not ready to enter party territory yet. I know I would find the whole experience uber stressful and I think parties can put a lot of pressure on young children. I tried so hard not to build up his birthday – I didn’t want him to be wired by the time the day came, talk about it all week or have expectations. He did have a couple of requests: a long table and making pizza. I asked him if our table at home would suffice and he said yes (phew).

Baking was high on the list of activities for the day, as was playing games. I don’t think I’ve ever baked a successful cake, or if I have, I have never been able to recreate it successfully. I’m more of a tray bake, cupcake baker. Winston and I were quite pleased how the cake turned out. It looked like the layers were too thin, so we decided to do double it. As a consequence it ended up huge!

We played every single one of his games and then spent a long time attempting to FaceTime my Mum after we missed her calls…and after Winston had taken no less than about 300 selfies!

Win and I made lots of pizza dough and got the toppings ready for people to make their own. From about half past 4 his cousins aunts, uncles and grandparents started arriving. It was a bit mad – 15 adults and 10 children makes for large amounts of mess and noise.

After food we had a quick game of pass the parcel, sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and ate cake. Jared and I were invited to a wedding on Saturday, but we realised quite late on that the children weren’t invited. Winston headed to my Mum’s for a sleepover and we were able to take Ru with us in the end. I really don’t like leaving him with anyone other than Jared, plus he’s only little and fits snuggly on our laps.

You have no idea how long it took to get this incredibly imperfect photograph, but I love it. Win has got new pyjamas on (shorts and tee of course), plus his shoes all ready to go to Grandma’s house.

Happy birthday Winston!

E xx